The European Council statement added: "We stand in unqualified solidarity with the United Kingdom in the face of this grave challenge to our shared security."

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the prime minister had "succeeded in getting them to toughen up" their language on the attack from earlier in the week.

But she said it did not seem likely that she will persuade other leaders to take the same kind of action she has against Russia by Friday - although some have not ruled out expelling Russian diplomats.

Theresa May said, after talks, that it was "right that we stand together"

Mrs May briefed her counterparts on Thursday on the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, who remain in a critical but stable condition in hospital after they were found unconscious on a bench.

The prime minister set out the evidence the UK has against Russia - including the positive identification of the chemical used as a type of Novichok nerve agent and the knowledge that Russia has produced this agent within the last 10 years.